The report, an update to a special primer report first published in April 2008, provides the results of a June 2009 survey of commercial printing establishments conducted by WhatTheyThink’s Economics and Research Center, descriptions of the leading green certification organizations—such as the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership, the Forest Stewardship Council, and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, to name but three—and a variety of steps commercial printers can take toward becoming environmentally sustainable and responsible. The report also seeks to dispel the increasingly common notion that print is more environmentally harmful than electronic media.

Printing Continues to Go Green gathers together secondary research that gauges the real “carbon cost” of a Google search, the environmental impact of the myriad servers and workstations that comprise the Internet, the looming e-waste epidemic, and more.

The report also offers conclusions, recommendations, and strategies both simple and complex for companies that are interested in pursuing green initiatives, as well as resources with which to obtain additional information.

“How many times have you heard, ‘We’ve cut down on the use of print to save trees’; ‘Electronic media are more environmentally friendly than print’; ‘Print just clogs landfills’; ‘We’re reducing our carbon footprint by printing less’? We don’t grant the premise that print is less environmentally responsible than other media, but the green printing issue is no longer ‘How green is my printer?’ but has now become ‘How green is print at all?’ Every human activity has an environmental impact of some kind, but it now behooves the printing industry to fight back by showing how environmentally sustainable we can be as an industry.”

According to the Report…

— in a June 2009 survey conducted by WhatTheyThink’s Economics and Research Center, the top green practice that U.S. commercial printers say they have currently implemented is “identify itself in marketing and sales materials and promotions as an environmentally sensitive business,” cited by 33% of all respondents, up from the 26% who said this in a March 2008 survey;

— 43% of all responding companies said that sustainable printing initiatives are “critically important to only a select few customers,” up from 41% in March 2008;

— 26% of all respondents say they plan to implement some form of certification from an environmentally sustainable printing authority, up from 20% in April 2008;

WhatTheyThink reports are available for online purchase at the WhatTheyThink Store in PDF format.

Availability

The WhatTheyThink special report, Printing Continues to Go Green: An Updated WhatTheyThink Primer on Environmental Sustainability in the Commercial Printing Industry is available for purchase by visiting the secure WhatTheyThink Store online at https://store.whattheythink.com/operations-management/printing-goes-green. The price for the 68-page report is $195. WhatTheyThink eStore customers can download this report in PDF Acrobat format immediately after purchase. An enterprise site license for this report is also available for $995.

WhatTheyThink is the printing and publishing industry's leading media organization; offering a wide range of publications delivering unbiased, real-time market intelligence, industry news, economic and trend analysis, peer-to-peer communication, and special reports on emerging technology and critical events. WhatTheyThink also hosts webinars and live events that are timely and relevant o today's busy industry executives along with consulting and speaker services that leverage a talented pool of writers and industry analysts.